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Class 10 Civics: Political Parties, 8 practice questions with answers

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These are 8 practice questions on Chapter 4, Political Parties, of the NCERT Class 10 Political Science textbook, Democratic Politics II. Each has a worked answer and the textbook page it comes from. Three of them read the chapter's survey graphics on how people in India and South Asia feel about parties, one applies the Election Commission's rule for recognising a party, and one compares the 2019 vote shares in the chapter with seats won. The other three ask you to name party systems, correct four claims about party reforms, and judge three assertion-and-reason pairs. Try each one on paper before you open the answer.

These questions are our own, drafted with AI help. Every fact was checked against the textbook page it cites, but no practising teacher has reviewed them yet. If you find a mistake, please tell us.

How this chapter is examined

In CBSE's Social Science paper for 2026-27, Political Science carries 20 of the 80 marks, shared by five chapters, this one among them (curriculum, page 2). CBSE gives no separate figure for this chapter, and it has no map item. The curriculum's learning outcomes for it are to understand how parties get elected, to know why the right to vote matters, and to examine the role, purpose and number of political parties in a democracy (page 5). The paper has 1-mark multiple-choice questions (including assertion and reason), 2, 3 and 5-mark answers, and 4-mark case studies (page 10).

What the chapter says you need

Facts from the NCERT textbook (Democratic Politics II, Class X, Chapter 4, printed pages 46 to 62):

Who feels close to a party?

Question 1. A bar chart in the chapter shows the percentage of people in India who said they feel close to a political party: 1971, 38; 1996, 31; 1999, 38; 2004, 53; 2005, 48. (a) In which survey year was the share lowest, in which highest, and how many percentage points apart are they? (b) In which two years did the share fall from the survey before, and by how much? (c) Compare 2005 with 1971. Does the chart's heading, "despite fluctuations, party identification has gone up", fit?

Answer: (a) lowest 1996 (31), highest 2004 (53): 22 points apart; (b) 1996, down 7 points, and 2005, down 5 points; (c) yes: 48 in 2005 is 10 points above 38 in 1971, though the rise was not steady. (a) 53 − 31 = 22 (chart, page 52). (b) 38 − 31 = 7 between 1971 and 1996, and 53 − 48 = 5 between 2004 and 2005 (page 52). (c) 48 − 38 = 10. The two falls are the "fluctuations"; the overall direction is up, which is what the chapter says about feeling close to a party in India (page 52). (The subtractions are our own.)

Party membership around the world

Question 2. Another graphic in the chapter gives the percentage of people who say they are members of a political party. The global average is 9.1. India is 11.4, Canada 6.1, Japan 3.4, South Korea 2.6 and Spain 1.3; Tanzania is 26.2 and Bangladesh 23.5. (a) How many percentage points above the global average is India? (b) Roughly how many times Canada's figure is India's? And Spain's? (c) Which two countries in this list are above India, and does the graphic's claim that party membership is higher in South Asia than elsewhere fit the two South Asian countries shown?

Answer: (a) 2.3 points; (b) nearly twice Canada's, about 9 times Spain's; (c) Tanzania and Bangladesh; yes, both India and Bangladesh are above the global average of 9.1. (a) 11.4 − 9.1 = 2.3 (graphic, page 52). (b) 11.4 ÷ 6.1 is about 1.9, and 11.4 ÷ 1.3 is about 8.8. The chapter makes the same point in words: party membership was higher in India than in advanced countries such as Canada, Japan, Spain and South Korea (page 52). (c) Only 26.2 and 23.5 are above 11.4. Bangladesh at 23.5 and India at 11.4 both sit above 9.1 (page 52). (The calculations are our own.)

Trust in parties

Question 3. The chapter's pie chart for South Asia shows how much people trust political parties: great or some trust, 37 per cent; not much or none, 43 per cent; don't know, 20 per cent. (a) How many percentage points more people distrust parties than trust them? (b) Leave out those who said "don't know". What share of the rest distrust parties? (c) Put this next to your answers to Questions 1 and 2. What does the chapter conclude about the common belief that people have turned away from parties?

Answer: (a) 6 points; (b) about 54 per cent; (c) the belief is only partly true for India: trust in parties is low, but people still join and feel close to them in growing numbers. (a) 43 − 37 = 6 (pie chart, page 52). (b) 37 + 43 = 80 people in every 100 gave an opinion, and 43 ÷ 80 is about 54 per cent. (c) The chapter says parties are among the least trusted institutions in most democracies, and more South Asians report little or no trust than some or great trust; yet participation is fairly high, and membership and closeness to a party have risen in India over three decades (page 52). (The sums are our own.)

Which parties are recognised?

Question 4. Use the Election Commission's rule as the chapter gives it. To be a State party, a party needs at least 6 per cent of the votes in a State's Legislative Assembly election and at least two seats there. To be a national party, it needs at least 6 per cent of the votes in a Lok Sabha election or in Assembly elections in four States, and at least four Lok Sabha seats. Decide each case. (These parties are made up.)

  1. Party P wins 7.5 per cent of the votes and 3 seats in one State's Assembly election. It contests nowhere else.
  2. Party Q wins 9 per cent of the votes but only 1 seat in one State's Assembly election.
  3. Party R wins 6.2 per cent of the votes in a Lok Sabha election and 5 Lok Sabha seats.
  4. Party S wins 8 per cent of the votes and 3 seats in each of four State Assembly elections, and 2 Lok Sabha seats.

Then say what a recognised party gets that others do not.

Answer: P is a State party; Q is not recognised; R is a national party; S is a State party in each of the four States but not a national party. A recognised party gets a unique election symbol that only its official candidates may use, and some other special facilities. P meets both tests: 7.5 is at least 6, and 3 seats is at least two. Q passes the vote test but fails the seat test. R passes both national tests. S has the votes in four States but only 2 Lok Sabha seats, short of four; with 8 per cent and 3 seats in each Assembly, it still meets the State party test in each State (rule, page 53). The symbol and facilities are on page 53. (The four cases are our own.)

Name the party system

Question 5. (a) Name the party system, or the arrangement, in each made-up case.

  1. In Country K, the law lets people form parties, but only the ruling party is allowed to compete for power.
  2. In Country L, a dozen parties contest elections and some win a few seats, but for forty years power has passed between the same two parties.
  3. In Country M, four parties each win between 15 and 30 per cent of the seats, and governments are formed by two or three of them together.
  4. Before an election in Country M, three parties agree to contest together and share power if they win.

(b) A voter in Country M says: "Coalitions are messy. Let's just switch to a two-party system." What would the chapter say?

Answer: (a) 1 one-party system; 2 two-party system; 3 multiparty system; 4 an alliance, or front. (b) A country cannot simply pick its party system: it grows over a long time out of the country's society and its social and regional divisions, its political history and its election system, and none of these change quickly. No system suits every country, and the multiparty system's messiness comes with a gain: many interests and opinions get represented. (a) One-party rule, with China as the example, is not a democratic option, because a democracy must let at least two parties compete with a fair chance of winning; two-party and multiparty systems and alliances are described on pages 50 to 51. (b) Page 51. (The four countries are our own.)

Party reforms: true or false?

Question 6. Say whether each claim is true or false. Correct the false ones.

  1. Since the Constitution was amended to stop elected MPs and MLAs from changing parties, they find it easier to disagree with their party leaders.
  2. Every candidate must file an affidavit on their property and pending criminal cases, and officials check each affidavit to make sure it is true.
  3. An Election Commission order requires parties to hold their organisational elections and to file income tax returns.
  4. A law already requires parties to give about one-third of their election tickets to women.

Answer: 1 false; 2 false; 3 true; 4 false. (1) The law has cut defection, but it has made dissent even harder: an MP or MLA who changes parties loses the seat, so members must accept what their leaders decide (pages 59 to 60). (2) The affidavit rule, from a Supreme Court order, is real, but there is no system to check whether what candidates declare is true (page 60). (3) True, though the chapter adds that parties sometimes treat it as a mere formality (page 60). (4) It is only a suggestion that parties have not yet accepted, along with a quota for women in parties' decision-making bodies (page 60). Do not confuse it with reserved seats: Chapter 3 of the same book describes the Women's Reservation Act, 2023, which reserves 33 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women; that is about seats, not about whom parties nominate.

Votes and seats in 2019

Question 7. The chapter's party profiles give these 2019 Lok Sabha results: Indian National Congress, 19.5 per cent of votes and 52 seats; Bahujan Samaj Party, about 3.63 per cent of votes and 10 seats; Bharatiya Janata Party, 303 seats. The Lok Sabha has 543 elected seats, so a majority is 272. (a) What share of the seats did the Congress win, and how does it compare with its vote share? (b) Do the same for the BSP. (c) What share of the seats did the BJP win, and by how many seats did it pass a majority? What does the chapter say about single-party majorities before 2014?

Answer: (a) about 9.6 per cent of the seats, roughly half its 19.5 per cent of the votes; (b) about 1.8 per cent of the seats, again roughly half its 3.63 per cent of the votes; (c) about 55.8 per cent of the seats, 31 more than a majority. Until 2014 no national party could win a Lok Sabha majority on its own, so national parties had to form alliances with State parties. (a) 52 ÷ 543 is about 9.6 per cent (Congress figures, page 55). (b) 10 ÷ 543 is about 1.8 per cent (BSP figures, page 54). (c) 303 ÷ 543 is about 55.8 per cent, and 303 − 272 = 31 (BJP figure, page 54; majorities and alliances, page 55). Votes and seats need not match: a party's share of seats can be well above or below its share of votes. (The 543 seats come from your Class 9 book, not this chapter; the calculations are our own.)

Assertion and reason

Question 8. For each pair, choose: (A) both true, and R explains A; (B) both true, but R does not explain A; (C) A true, R false; (D) A false, R true.

  1. A: Since 1996, nearly every State party has had a chance to be part of a national coalition government. R: Until 2014, no national party could win a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own.
  2. A: The anti-defection amendment has made it easier for MPs and MLAs to disagree with their party. R: Under it, an MP or MLA who changes parties loses the seat.
  3. A: In India, top party leaders usually choose who will contest elections. R: In the USA, a party's members and supporters choose its candidates.

Answer: 1 (A); 2 (D); 3 (B). (1) Both are true, and R explains A: because no national party had a majority of its own, national parties had to ally with State parties (page 55). (2) A is false: the law has made dissent harder, not easier. R is true (pages 59 to 60). (3) Both are true (page 48), but how the USA picks candidates does not explain how India does it; the chapter gives them as two different methods.

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Sources

All opened and read on 3 November 2026. Page numbers are the printed page numbers of the textbook.

The facts, figures and graphics are from the textbook pages above. The questions, worked answers, the sums and the examples marked as ours are our own. This guide is general information; follow your teacher and the official CBSE notices.

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